Goldman’s Hatzius now sees September tapering

Closely followed Fed watcher Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, has pulled forward his forecast of the start of the Federal Reserve’s tapering in the wake of the strong jobs report. He now thinks the central bank will start to taper in September instead of December.

While it is not a “done deal,” it looks likely, Hatzius said in an interview on CNBC about an hour after the stock market opened Friday.

The Fed will mostly likely announce a one-time reduction in the pace of asset purchases and not make any signals about the next move, to keep their options open, he said.

The Fed is now buying $85 billion of Treasurys and mortgage-related assets each month.

Hatzius said the Fed will stress that the first hike in short-term interest rate remains way in the future. He said the Fed will decide not to hikes until the unemployment rate falls to 6%, down from its current threshold of 6.5%.